Topic Last Modified: 2005-11-18

The Microsoft® Exchange Server Analyzer Tool reads the following registry entry to determine whether LeakDiag.exe is installed on the computer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\LeakDiag

If the Exchange Server Analyzer finds this registry branch present, a non-default configuration message is displayed.

LeakDiag is a set of tools that helps developers, support professionals, and information technology (IT) personnel diagnose memory leaks, fragmentation, and other memory-related issues in applications or services that are on computers running Microsoft Windows NT® Server 4.0, Windows® 2000 Server, Windows XP, and Windows Server™ 2003.

The LeakDiag tools can be used to pinpoint memory leaks down to the line of code. Using the Detours technology from Microsoft, LeakDiag intercepts calls to specified memory allocations and tracks the various call stacks. It reports on the memory that has been allocated but not yet freed. This information lets you troubleshoot a memory leak problem to see exactly what components made the allocations. With correct debug symbols, even the line of code that requested the allocations can be seen.

It is recommended that you do not run LeakDiag on Exchange servers that are in a production environment. When enabled, LeakDiag will track all memory allocations for all processes every time the Exchange server is started. This will consume a massive amount of processor and memory resources and is not recommended unless you are actively troubleshooting a memory-related problem. If you are not actively troubleshooting a memory-related problem, you should turn off LeakDiag. Running LeakDiag in a production Exchange Server environment could lead to memory fragmentation and depletion, and ultimately Exchange failure.

Note:
You should always troubleshoot problems with LeakDiag during off-peak hours. Using LeakDiag during periods of heavy or peak usage can cause a significant decrease in the performance of your Exchange Server computer.

Information about this message

  1. This message is for informational purposes only. As long as LeakDiag is not enabled and running, just having it installed does not affect Exchange Server performance. LeakDiag does require almost 4 megabytes (MB) of hard disk space (not including logs).

  2. To free this hard disk space, you can remove LeakDiag.exe by going to Control Panel, clicking Add/Remove Programs, clicking LeakDiag, and then clicking Remove.

For the latest version of LeakDiag, see the Microsoft public FTP site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=41401).